Italian Priest Organizes Beauty Contest for Nuns

[American Patriot]

Italian Priest Organizes Beauty Contest for Nuns

Monday, August 25, 2008
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,409766,00.html

ROME — An Italian priest and theologian said Sunday he is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.

The "Miss Sister 2008" contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image.

"Nuns are a bit excluded, they are a bit marginalized in ecclesiastical life," Rungi told The Associated Press after Italian media carried reports of the idea. "This will be an occasion to make their contribution more visible."

Rungi, a theologian and schoolteacher from the Naples area, said that visitors to his site will have a month to "vote for the nun they consider a model."

Nuns will fill out a profile including information about their life and vocation as well as a photograph. It will be up to them to choose whether to pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered.

"We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits," Rungi said by telephone from his town of Mondragone. "But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn't hide it."

Rungi said the idea was first suggested to him by nuns with whom he regularly prays and works. He hopes there will be dozens of submissions once the Web site is started.

The contest drew criticism from the association of Catholic teachers.

"It's an initiative that belittles the role of nuns who have dedicated themselves to God," the group's president, Alberto Giannino, told Italy's ANSA news agency on Sunday.

[Aplomb]

Priests are individuals and I don't agree with some of the things that they come up with. Like this stupid stunt.

These nuns should watch some of the documentary footage and the movie about Mother Teresa and get an attitude adjustment. Being a nun is supposed to be a calling from God to serve God by devotion to prayer or to serve Him by serving the human race in some humble way.

Secondly, where do you draw the line on the enticement factor? To follow the logic, you could reach prostitutes by being a nun who looks and acts like a hooker but just doesn't turn the tricks. Maybe you could go into the worst areas in America and deal some drugs as long as the money goes to the church. Good grief!

[Brian Baldwin]

I imagine the church is getting desperate due to the decline in women joining the ranks. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...51C0A963958260 The same is holding true of the priesthood even with allowing married priests now. This particular priest is grasping straws though.

[American Patriot]

Oh give me a break. I think it's good for the Nuns to get out and get down...

/snicker.

Better than "Sister Mary Steel Ruler". I'd much prefer to see "Sister Victoria Secret"

[PsycoJoe]

As long as they don't make a habit of it....

[Toad]

/RimShot

[Ryan Ruck]

LOL!

No offense to nuns as they are doing God's work but, I cannot recall a single nun I would want to see in a beauty contest. Then again, maybe things are different in Italy.

[American Patriot]

I've seen a few.... that would look good in bikinis lol

[Aplomb]

lol...a little makeup never hurt anybody.

[wallis]

I thought Whoopie Goldberg did a lot in promoting nuns as "real" human beings in her Sister, Sister 1 and 2.

I teach in a Catholic University, and I get the feeling (reinforced from part of the bias I have been spoonfed as a Lutheran) that the nuns get shafted (no pun intended) in their ministry, as if they are third-class citizens in the RCC. They are supposed to be equals in religious training along with the men.

How many movies, for example, have we seen where a nun gets all the credit for defeating the Great Satan and its evil minions? An atheist cop (Scharzenegger) got better billing! Wouldn't it be kind of interesting if the devil is portrayed as an evil bitch, and the hero was a nun? Woman a woman! And who better can handle a woman than another woman!

[Ryan Ruck]

An atheist cop with a 40 millimetah!


As for a bitch of a devil, I'm partial to Ms. Hurley in Bedazzled...